Irvine Obliges Stanford

UC Irvine has won at least 20 games three seasons in a row without reaching the NCAA tournament.

The Anteaters’ chance to make an impression that might stick come selection time seemed to arrive Tuesday when No. 20 Stanford became the highest-ranked opponent to visit the Bren Center since 1996.

But even with Stanford’s best player, Josh Childress, sitting out as a precaution because of a foot injury, the Anteaters were never close in a 72-59 loss in front of 5,000.

Stanford point guard Chris Hernandez, who sat out all but 18 minutes last season after breaking his left foot twice, made six of seven three-point shots and scored a career-high 22 points. He had five assists without a turnover to lead the Cardinal (2-0).

Irvine (2-2) made only two of its first 14 shots and watched as Stanford scored the first 11 points and took a 24-5 lead by making 10 of its first 14 shots.

“Obviously, in our perimeter play we didn’t play with any intelligence, didn’t take care of the basketball and didn’t have the discipline offensively it takes to play at that caliber,” Irvine Coach Pat Douglass said.

Adam Parada led Irvine with 12 points and nine rebounds, but the Anteaters were held to below 40% shooting, and only 32% in the first half.

-- Robyn Norwood

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Loyola Marymount’s offense is still a work in progress after two games. The defense looks just fine.

In a turnover-plagued game against Cal State Northridge, the Lions overcame their share of mistakes by forcing 22 turnovers in an 81-70 victory Tuesday night at Gersten Pavilion.

Keith Kincade scored 21 points, and Loyola (2-0) limited Northridge (1-1) to 43.3% shooting and held leading scorer Ian Boylan to 13 points.

The Lions, who used their defense to defeat UC Riverside in their opener, led the entire second half despite committing 23 turnovers in the game.

“It was not a pretty game but we did what we had to do to win,” Coach Steve Aggers said. “Our offense has a lot to learn. But you turn on the TV and no one looks pretty good on offense in November.”

Chris Davis had 21 points for Northridge and Davin White scored 19, but the Lions focused on slowing down Boylan, who averaged 15.8 points last season.

Despite some intense moments against the Northridge press, Loyola stayed in control as Kincade made seven of eight free throws in the final 1:25.

-- Eric Stephens